William Empson Quote
The TeasersNot but they die, the teasers and the dreams,Not but they die, and tell the careful floodTo give them what they clamour for and why.You could not fancy where they rip to bloodYou could not fancy nor that mudI have heard speak that will not cake or dry.Our claims to act appear so small to theseOur claims to act colder lunaciesThat cheat the love, the moment, the small fact.Make no escape because they flash and die,Make no escape build up your love,Leave what you die for and be safe to die.
William Empson
The TeasersNot but they die, the teasers and the dreams,Not but they die, and tell the careful floodTo give them what they clamour for and why.You could not fancy where they rip to bloodYou could not fancy nor that mudI have heard speak that will not cake or dry.Our claims to act appear so small to theseOur claims to act colder lunaciesThat cheat the love, the moment, the small fact.Make no escape because they flash and die,Make no escape build up your love,Leave what you die for and be safe to die.
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About William Empson
Jonathan Bate has written that the three greatest English literary critics of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries are Johnson, Hazlitt and Empson, "not least because they are the funniest".